Born December 11, 1931, in Kuchwadar, Madhya Pradesh, Osho is a contemporary Indian mystic and philosopher. One of the great spiritual minds of our time, he is renowned for his penetrating understanding of the nature of life, modern Western society and spiritual disciplines of all kinds.Osho became enlightened on March 21, 1953 at the age of twenty-one.Between 1957 and 1966 he was a University Professor and prize-winning public speaker. From 1958 he left the University and began the devotion of his life to the raising of human consciousness. His revolutionary talks and meditation camps drew crowds of thousands everywhere in India. He brought his teachings to the West and developed a devoted following among Westerners as well.Osho suffered persecution and imprisonment, but survived to return to India and revitalize his following and ashram. He departed this life in Pune, India on January 19, 1990, probably as a result of thallium poisoning while in custody in Oklahoma in 1985.
Osho published many books, talks and videotapes, which are widely available and can also be purchased on line. For a more detailed biography of Osho, please click here.

Osho, one of the great spiritual minds of our time, continues his discussion of the essential nature of astrology in this, the third part of the article. "Every soul chooses its own time of conception — when it will accept a womb, at which moment. The moment of conception is not insignificant. It is significant in that it is a question of how the entire universe exists at that moment, and to what sort of possibilities the universe opens the door at that moment...".

One thing more must be considered. It has been thought that astrology is a science which, because it originated in an earlier time, could not develop. But in my view the situation is just the opposite. Astrology was an infinitely developed science in some extremely advanced civilization, but that civilization has been lost and only incomplete fragments of its astrology have remained in our hands.

Astrology is not a new science which needs to be developed, but a science which was at one time very advanced.

Then the civilization which developed it was lost. Civilizations come and go every day; the fundamentals, the basic sayings and the basic principles of those things which have been developed by them, become lost. Today, science is approaching the point where it will accept the thesis that life as a whole is affected by the movements of the stars.

At the time of birth, the condition of a child’s mind is exactly like a very sensitive photo plate. Two or three things need to be thought about if we want to understand how life is affected. And only if life is affected can there be the possibility of astrology — not otherwise.

We should try to understand the phenomenon of twins. Two types of twins exist: One is identical twins — those who are born from one egg; the other type is of those who, although they are twins, are born from separate eggs — in the mother’s womb two eggs become fertilized, and two children are born. The first type is more rare — two children from one egg. They are very significant subjects to study because they are born at the same time. Out of necessity we call the children born from separate eggs twins, but the moment of their birth is not exactly the same.

It must be understood that birth is an ambiguous phenomenon. The first aspect of birth is conception — the actual birth takes place on the day when the foetus is conceived in the mother’s womb. This is the actual birth. What you call birth is really birth number two — when the child comes out of the mother’s womb.

If we were to carry out a complete astrological investigation — as the Hindus alone have done, and done very thoroughly — then our actual concern would not begin when the child is born. Our actual concern begins when the child starts its journey in the mother’s womb, when the conception takes place — because that is the actual birth. So Hindus have also come to feel that if a particular type of child is to be born, it will be born if intercourse and pregnancy occur under an arrangement of planets and constellation most suitable for that type. Now I will explain to you a little of the background of this, because much work has been done in this area and many things have become clear.

Ordinarily, when a child was born at six o’clock in the morning, we thought that the constellation which existed at that time influences the child. But those who know astrology deeply say that the stars do not cast their influence over a child just because it is born at six o’clock in the morning. No, rather, the child chooses to be born under those stars which will influence him as he wishes to be influenced. This is a radically different thing.

When the child is taking birth, it chooses the planets and stars, and the moment at which it will take birth.

And if we go still more deeply, then the child also chooses the time of its conception.

Every soul chooses its own time of conception — when it will accept a womb, at which moment. The moment of conception is not insignificant. It is significant in that it is a question of how the entire universe exists at that moment, and to what sort of possibilities the universe opens the door at that moment.

When two children are conceived together from one egg, then the moment of their conception is the same and the moment of their birth is the same. It is interesting that the lives of the two children who have taken birth from one egg are so alike, that it is difficult to say that the moment of birth has no influence. The IQ of twins born from one egg is just about equal. And those who know, say that the fractional difference which arises is because of our faulty measuring devices. Even today we have not been able to develop adequate criteria by which we can quantitatively measure intelligence.

If twins born from the same egg are brought up far apart from each other, their IQs still do not differ. Even if one child is raised in India and another in China, and neither is aware of the existence of the other, this will still be true. Cases have occurred where such twins have been raised far apart from each other until they have attained maturity, but their IQs did not differ. It is surprising that the IQ can be associated with the child’s potential at birth.

When the twin who lives in China suffers from a cold, at that time its twin in India also suffers from a cold. Generally, twins born from one egg die in the same year. At the most, three years elapse between their deaths, and at the least, three days — but never more than three years. If one twin has died, then we can assume that after three days or within three years the other will die. Their attitudes, their behavior, their feelings are parallel, and it seems that the two live in almost exactly the same way. Their similarity is seen in many other things also — each acts like a copy of the other.

Everyone’s skin is individual. If my hand is damaged and new skin needs to be grafted, then your skin cannot be grafted onto my hand; it will be necessary to use a piece of my own skin. On the entire Earth, there will be no one whose skin can be grafted onto my hand. My body will give signs of rejection; it will not accept another’s skin. However, the skin of twins born out of one egg can be transplanted. This is the only exception. If the skin of one is grafted onto the skin of the other, the other’s body will not reject it. Why is that? What is the cause? We cannot say that it is because they have the same parents, because even though two brothers may have the same parents, their skins are not interchangeable. The only exception is found in those children who were conceived at the same moment. Even between them no other common factor exists.

Their brothers also came from the same mother and father, but their skins cannot be interchanged the skin of one brother cannot be grafted onto another brother’s body. Only the moment of their births differ; the mother and father are the same, everything else is the same. They differ greatly in only one thing, and that is the moment of their conception.

Is the moment of birth so influential that the life span is of about the same length, that their IQs are almost equal, that their bodily behavior is the same, that when the two fall ill it is from the same illness, and that when the two become well again, it is from the same medicine? Can the moment of birth be so influential?

Astrology has been saying that the moment of birth is even more important than this.

Up until now science has not agreed with astrology, but it is now beginning to do so. In coming to this increasing agreement, some new experiments have been helpful.

For example, when we launched man-made satellites into space, we discovered that a wide range of radioactive rays from space, and the constellations are continuously bombarding the Earth. Nothing on the Earth is unaffected by this phenomenon. We know that the ocean is influenced by the moon, but we have not taken into consideration the fact that the same proportion of water and salt that occurs in the ocean also occurs in the human body the same proportion. Seventy percent of the human body consists of water, and the proportion of salt contained in that water is the same as is contained in the Arabian Sea. If the water in the ocean is affected by the moon, then how could the water inside the human body remain unaffected?

Now in this connection, two or three facts emerging from recent investigations must be kept in mind. For example, as the day of the full moon approaches, the amount of insanity in the world increases, whereas on the last day of the darker fourteen days, the least number of people go insane. As the moon grows brighter the level of insanity also begins to increase. On the day of the full moon, the greatest number of people enter madhouses; and on the last day of the moon’s waning period, the greatest number of people are discharged from madhouses. Statistics are now available....

In English there is the word lunatic; in Hindi we have the word chaandmara.Chaand refers to the moon, just as lunar does in English. Chaandmara is a very ancient term, and the word lunatic also is some three thousand years old. Some three thousand years ago, people realized that the moon affects the insane. But if it affects the insane, then how can it avoid affecting the sane?

In the final analysis, the construction of the brain and the internal composition of the body are the same for all.

Yes, it may be that the moon affects the insane to a greater extent, and the sane to a lesser extent, but this is simply a quantitative difference. It is impossible that the sane remain completely unaffected by the moon. If that was true, then nobody would go mad because everyone who goes mad was once sane. The moon must first affect those who are sane.